If you find yourself on a ship, how do you know which
side is starboard and which side is port? As a Naval
Man the answer is quite simple - Port is left and
starboard is right. But if you were travelling on a ship
for the first time, how could you remember that? Well,
it is really quite simple. There are four letters in the
words PORT and LEFT so you can easily remember
that the left side of a ship is the port side.

Another way of distinguishing between port and
starboard is by using the colours red and green. The
port navigation light of a ship is always red and the
starboard one is always green. An easy way to
remember that is to know that Port (the drink) is red
and so by a process of elimination (not a difficult one,
I'll admit) the starboard light will be green.

My thanks to Kysdonn who e-mailed me about learning
the Port and Starboard of Aircraft - "It's simple. Port
has only 4 letters and so does Left. Starboard is a longer
word and so is Right compared to Left. Therefore, short
to short and long to long."